NGO Joint Letter to Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Calling the Australian Government to Act

Click to view the full letters addressed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong.

Dear Minister / Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned over the ongoing human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China, which are in violation of international human rights treaties.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice in the Buddhist tradition centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. This year, 20 July 2024, marks 25 years since the Chinese Communist government launched a systematic and brutal campaign to eradicate Falun Gong. Since July 1999, millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been arbitrarily arrested and jailed without due process and many have been tortured and killed. Evidence shows that people who practise Falun Gong are being killed-to-order as the main organ source for China’s state-sanctioned organ transplantation industry.(1)

These atrocities have been well-documented by human rights organisations, governmental bodies, and international organisations.(2)

In 2007, the US State Department Human Rights Report stated(3), “[the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred] Nowak reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in government custody.” In 2021, 12 UN Special Rapporteurs and human rights experts issued a formal correspondence to the Chinese Government regarding credible evidence that forced organ harvesting is taking place.(4)

In 2019, the China Tribunal concluded that “forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one – and probably the main – source of organ supply.”(1) In 2021, the United States sanctioned a CCP official for involvement “in gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs.”(5)

In 2024, the European Parliament passed resolution 2024/2504 (RSP)(6) which “strongly urges the PRC to immediately end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and other minorities, including Uyghurs and Tibetans”. This follows the US House Resolution 343(7) which passed unanimously in 2016 and demanded “an end to the 17-year persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice and the release of all Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.”

We urge the Australian Government to take immediate action to address these egregious human rights violations, including passing a motion to call for an immediate end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China, and the unconditional release of all detained Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, particularly the family members of Australian citizens and residents.

The Australian Government should also implement Magnitsky-style sanctions against individuals and entities participating in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and raise this issue at the UN Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly.

Australia is obligated to uphold human rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)(8) , and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

We look forward to your urgent response detailing what actions the Australian Government will take.

Yours faithfully

Dr Lucy Zhao
President, Falun Dafa Association of Australia

Jane Poon
Representative, Australia-Hong Kong Link

Michelle Pearse
CEO, Australian Christian Lobby (ACL)

Carolyn Kitto
Co-director, Be Slavery Free

Dr Rev Bob Fu
President & Founder, China Aid Association

Dr Yang Jianli
President, Citizens Power Initiatives for China

Roz Dunman
Founder & Executive Director, Coalition Against Global Genocide (CoAGG)

Coalition for Genocide Response Coalition for Genocide Response

Thierry Valle
President, Coordination des Associations et Des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience (CAP Freedom of Conscience)

Dr Torsten Trey
Executive Director, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH)

Jane Durgom-Powers
CEO, Families of the Missing

Christine Lin
Managing Director, Friends of Falun Gong USA

Dr Gregory Stanton
Founding President, Genocide Watch

Sherrie Caltagirone
Executive Director, Global Emancipation Network

Susie Hughes
Executive Director, International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC)

Eleonora Mongelli
Vice President, Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU)

Hene Zuberi
Director, Justice for All

Taha Ghayyur
Executive Director, Justice For All Canada

Dr Katrina Lantos Swett
President, Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice

Jasna Causevic
Consultant for Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect, Society for Threatened Peoples (STP)

Ed Brown
Secretary-General, Stefanus Alliance International

Professor Chongyi Feng
President, The Australian and New Zealand Alliance for Victims of Chinese Communist Regime

Louisa Greve
Director of Global Advocacy, Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)

Dr Eric Patterson
President & CEO, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC)

Dinh Tran
President, Vietnamese Australian Lawyers’ Association

Dolkun Isa
President, World Uyghur Congress

Ellen J. Kennedy PhD
Executive Director, World Without Genocide at Mitchell Hamline School of Law